Four More Beers? Well, Here Are Two From The White House

President Obama drinks a beer — that's presumably not from the White House — as he watches the U.S. men's basketball team play Brazil in an Olympic exhibition game in July.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP

President Obama drinks a beer — that's presumably not from the White House — as he watches the U.S. men's basketball team play Brazil in an Olympic exhibition game in July.

Alex Brandon/AP

Belly up, folks, the White House is pouring out its homebrew secrets. On its website Saturday, the White House released two recipes for the homemade beer President Obama's been talking up for months.

In releasing the recipes, the White House is tapping into a boozy frenzy of anticipation that intensified last week when Obama held a surprise Q&A session on the Reddit message boards. "What's the recipe for the White House's beer?" asked one user.

"It will be out soon! I can tell from firsthand experience, it is tasty," Obama replied.

And on this particular campaign promise, the president has delivered. In the last year, Obama has been serving White House beer during the Super Bowl, on the campaign bus and even to one lucky patron of a Knoxville, Iowa, coffee shop.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, however, a true taste of the White House homebrew remains out of reach. Both recipes — a porter and an ale — are brewed with the honey from White House bees, making the presidential pint a truly unique ambrosia.

Sam Kass, assistant chef at the White House, says while founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were known for crafting whiskey and wine at home, this homebrew marks the first time beer has ever been made at the White House.

"We asked the curators if there was any history of brewing or distilling here at the White House, so they looked, and turns out there was some evidence of drinking during prohibition, but beyond that there's no evidence that any beer or liquor has been brewed or distilled," he says in the behind-the-scenes video accompanying the recipes.

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"That is one incredible beer, if I do say so myself," he adds. "America, I wish everyone could taste this, but we don't quite brew enough."